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ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


AN  ESSAY  BY 


MRS.  JOHN  STUART  MILL, 


REPRINTED  FR021  THS 


WESTMINSTER  AND  FOREIGN  QUARTERLY  REVIEW, 

FOR  JULY,  1851, 

r 


NEW  YOKE : 

Office  of  “THE  REVOLUTION/ 

NO.  37  PARK  ROW  (ROOM  17). 


t 


1868. 


UNIVERSAL  CLOTHES  WRINGEJR, 

THE  j 

Cannot  be  surpassed  or  equalled 
by  any  other  Wringer  for  durabil- 
ity, till  the  expiration  of  the  latent 
for  the  “ COG-  WHEEL  REGU- 
LATOR” or  “STOP -GEAr." 
iVb  other  Wringer  is  licensed  imder 
this  Patent.  It  being  now  uijnver- 
sally  conceded  that  Cogs  are  lieces- 
sary  to  prevent  the  Rolls  froija  be-, 
ing  broken  or  torn  loose,  maijjy  at- 
tempts have  been  made  to  jget  a 
Cog-Wheel  arrangement  ijvhich 
shall  equal  the  UNIVERSAL, 
and  yet  avoid  the  “Stop-G';ar” 
patent,  but  without  success. 

Any  Cog-Wheel  Wringer  having 
Cogs,  whether  at  one  or  both  ends 
pf  the  roll,  which  can  play  apart  and  fly  out  of  gear  when  a large  article  is  passing 
through,  is  COMPARATIVELY  WORTHLESS,  as  the  Cogs  are  then  of  no  aid  (when 
most  needed,  and  an  arrangement  of  Cog-Wheels  in  fixed  bearings,  the  upper  one  alcting 
on  a roll  in  movable  bearings,  must  prove  a mechanical  failure  in  use,  and  we  waijn  all 
persons  not  to  purchase  such  Wringers  as  an  “improvement  on  the  Universal,”  which 
they  are  sometimes  represented  to  be  by  the  salesmen. 

• The  “Universal  Clothes  Wringer”  has  been  in  use  in  my  family  for  over  five 
$ears.  It  certainly  saves  much  hard  work.  It  saves  clothes  also , for  garments  that  are 
getting  old  and  worn  are  never  cracked  or  torn  by  it,  as  they  are  sure  to  be  when  wrung 
by  hand.  I therefore  eheerfully  recommend  it  as  a valuable  family  assistant. 

Newark,  N.  J.,  June,  1867.  LUCY  STONE. 

Many  who  sell  the  UNIVERSAL  WRINGER  keep  also  the 

DOTY 

]i  WASHING  MACHINE, 

which,  though  hut  recently  introduced,  is  really 
ate  great  a LABOR  and  CLOTHES  SAVER 
as  the  Wringer,  and  is  destined  to  win  public 
favor  and  patronage  everywhere. 

• It  washes  perfectly , without  wearing  or  rub- 
bing  the  clothes  at  all. 

, Those  keeping  the  Wringer  for  sale,  will  or- 
der the  W asher  for  customers,  if  they  have  not 
got  a supply  on  hand.  On  receipt  of  the  Re- 
tail price,  from  places  where  no  one  is  selling , 
we  will  send  either  or  both  machines  from  New 
York. 

Prices— Familv  Washer,  $14.  No.  1%  Wrin- 
ger, $10.  No.  2 Wringer,  $8  60. 

A supply  of  the  Wringers  and  Washers  is 
always  kept  on  hand  in  Chicago,  Cincinnati, 

Cleveland,  Janesville  and  St.  Louis,  boxed  ready 
tor  shipment,  at  about  New  York  prices. 

Large  profits  are  made  selling  these  machines.  Exclusive  right  of  sale  given,  with  no 
charge  for  the  patent  right.  1 

Circulars,  giving  Wholesale  and  Retail  prices,  sent  free. 

R.  C.  BROWNING,  General  Agent, 

Opposite  Merchant’®  Hotel.)  No.  32  Oourtlandt  Street,  New 

WARNE,  CHEEYER  & GO.,  General  Agents,  St,  Louis,  Moj 


3 2 ■A.  3 
M6!e 


Lm 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN: 


BY  MRS.  JOHN  STUART  MILL. 


REPRINTED  FROM  THE 


“WESTMINSTER  AND  FOREIGN  QUARTERLY  REVIEW,” 


FOR  JULY,  1851. 


Most  of  our  readers  will  probably  learn  from  these  pages,  for 
the  first  time,  that  there  has  arisen  in  the  United  States,  and  in 
the  most  civilized  and  enlightened  portion  of  them,  an  organized 
agitation  on  a new  question,  — new,  not  to  thinkers,  nor  to  any 

. one  by  whom  the  principles  of  free  and  popular  government  are 

felt,  as  well  as  acknowledged,  but  new,  and  even  unheard  of,  as  a 
subject  for  public  meetings  and  practical  political  action.  This 
question  is,  the  enfranchisement  of  women ; their  admission,  in 
law,  and  in  fact,  to  equality  in  all  rights,  political,  civil  and  social, 
with  the  male  citizens  of  the  community. 

It  will  add  to  the  surprise  with  which  many  will  receive  this 
intelligence,  that  the  agitation  which  has  commenced  is  not  a 

Ideading  by  male  writers  and  orators  for  women,  those  who  are 
>rofessedly  to  be  benefited  remaining  either  indifferent  or  osten- 
sibly hostile ; it  is  a political  movement,  practical  in  its  objects, 
larried  on  in  a form  which  denotes  an  intention  to  persevere. 
Lnd  it  is  a movement  not  merely  for  women,  but  by  them. 
Its  first  public  manifestation  appears  to  have  been  a convention 
K women,  held  in  the  State  of  New  York,  July,  1843.  Of 

I ’ 3731 


u 


2 


E3CFEANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


this  meeting  we  have  seen  no  report.  On  the  23d  and  24th  of 
October  last,  a succession  of  public  meetings  was  held  at  Worces* 
ter,  in  Massachusetts,  under  the  name  of  a “ Women’s  Rights 
Convention,”  of  which  the  president  was  a woman,  and  nearly  all 
the  chief  speakers  women;  numerously  reinforced,  however,  by 
men,  among  whom  were  some  of  the  most  distinguished  leaders  in 
the  kindred  cause  of  negro  emancipation.  A general  and  four 
special  committees  were  nominated,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on 
the  undertaking  until  the  next  annual  meeting. 

According  to  the  report  in  the  New  York  Tribune , above  a 
thousand  persons  were  present  throughout,  and,  “ if  a larger  place 
could  have  been  had,  many  thousands  more  would  have  attended.” 
The  place  was  described  as  “ crowded,  from  the  beginning,  with 
attentive  and  interested  listeners.”  In  regard  to  the  quality  of 
the  speaking,  the  proceedings  bear  an  advantageous  comparison 
with  those  of  any  popular  movement  with  which  we  are  ac- 
quainted, either  in  this  country  or  in  America.  Very  rarely,  in 
the  oratory  of  public  meetings,  is  the  part  of  verbiage  and  decla- 
mation so  small,  that  of  calm  good  sense  and  reason  so  consider- 
able. The  result  of  the  convention  was,  in  every  respect,  en- 
couraging to  those  by  whom  it  was  summoned;  and  it  is  probably 
destined  to  inaugurate  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  movements 
towards  political  and  social  reform,  which  are  the  best  character- 
istic of  the  present  age. 

That  the  promoters  of  this  new  agitation  take  their  stand  on 
principles,  and  do  not  fear  to  declare  these  in  their  widest  extent, 
without  time-serving  or  compromise,  will  be  seen  from  the  reso- 
lutions adopted  by  the  convention,  part  of  which  we  transcribe : 

Resolved , That  every  human  being,  of  full  age,  and  resident  for  a pro 
length  of  time  on  the  soil  of  the  nation,  who  is  required  to  obey  the  law, 
entitled  to  a voice  in  its  ei  Ument  ; that  every  such  person,  whose  Tffope 
or  labor  is  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  government,  is  entitled  to  a dir 
share  in  such  government.  Therefore, 

Resolved,  That  women  are  entitled  to  the  right  of  suffrage,  and  to  be  c 
sidered  eligible  to  office  ; and  that  every  party,  whioh  claims  to  repres 
the  humanity,  the  civilization,  and  the  progress  of  the  age,  is  bound  to 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


3 


scribe  on  its  banners,  equality  before  the  law,  without  distinction  of  sex  oi 
color. 

Resolved,  That  civil  and  political  rights  acknowledge  no  sex,  and  there* 
fore  the  word  “ male  ” should  be  stricken  from  every  state  constitution. 

Resolved,  That,  since  the  prospect  of  honorable  and  useful  employment  in 
after  life  is  the  best  stimulus  to  the  use  of  educational  advantages,  and  since 
the  best  education  is  that  we  give  ourselves,  in  the  struggles,  employments 
and  discipline  of  life  ; therefore  it  is  impossible  that  women  should  make 
full  use  of  the  instruction  already  accorded  to  them,  or  that  their  career 
should  do  justice  to  their  faculties,  until  the  avenues  to  the  various  civil  and 
professional  employments  are  thrown  open  to  them. 

Resolved,  That  every  effort  to  educate  women,  without  according  to  them 
their  rights,  and  arousing  their  conscience  by  the  weight  of  their  responsibil- 
ities, is  futile,  and  a waste  of  labor. 

Resolved,  That  the  laws  of  property,  as  affecting  married  persons,  de- 
mand a thorough  revisal,  so  that  all  rights  be  equal  between  them  ; that  the 
wife  have,  during  life,  an  equal  control  over  the  property  gained  by  their 
mutual  toil  and  sacrifices,  and  be  heir  to  her  husband  precisely  to  that  extent 
that  he  is  heir  to  her,  and  entitled  at  her  death  to  dispose  by  will  of  the 
same  share  of  the  joint  property  as  he  is. 

The  following  is  a brief  summary  of  the  principal  demands  : 

1.  Education  in  primary  and  high  schools,  universities,  medical,  legal  and 
theological  institutions. 

2.  Partnership  in  the  labors  and  gains,  risks  and  remunerations,  of  product- 
ive industry. 

3.  A coequal  share  in  the  formation  and  administration  of  laws,  — muni- 
cipal, state  and  national,  — through  legislative  assemblies,  courts,  and  exe- 
cutive offices. 

It  would  be  difficult  to  put  so  much  true,  just  and  reasonable 
meaning  into  a style  so  little  calculated  to  recommend  it  as  that 
of  some  of  the  resolutions.  But  whatever  objection  may  be  made 
to  some  of  the  expressions,  none,  in  our  opinion,  can  be  made  to  the 
demands  themselves.  As  a question  of  justice,  the  case  seems  to 
us  too  clear  for  dispute.  As  one  of  expediency,  the  more  thoroughly 
it  is  examined,  the  stronger  it  will  appear. 

That  women  have  as  good  a claim  as  men  have,  in  point  of  per- 
sonal right,  to  the  suffrage,  or  to  a place  in  the  jury-box,  it  would 
be' difficult  for  anyone  to  deny.  It  cannot  certainly  be  denied  by 
fchd  United  States  of  America,  as  a people  or  as  community. 


4 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


Their  democratic  institutions  rest  avowedly  on  the  inherent  right 
of  every  one  to  a voice  in  the  government.  Their  Declaration  of 
Independence,  framed  by  the  men  who  are  still  their  great  constitu- 
tional authorities,  — that  document  which  has  been  from  the  first, 
and  is  now,  the  acknowledged  basis  of  their  polity,  — commences 
with  this  express  statement: 

“ We  hold  these  truths  to  be  self-evident  : that  all  men  are  created  equal; 
that  they  are  endowed  by  their  Creator  with  certain  inalienable  rights  ; 
that  among  these  are  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness  ; that,  to 
secure  these  rights,  governments  are  instituted  among  men,  deriving  their 
just  powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed.” 

We  do  not  imagine  that  any  American  democrat  will  evade  the 
force  of  these  expressions  by  the  dishonest  or  ignorant  subterfuge, 
that  “ men,”  in  this  memorable  document,  does  not  stand  for 
human  beings,  but  for  one  sex  only ; that  “ life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness,”  are  “ inalienable  rights  ” of  only  one  moiety 
of  the  human  species ; and  that  “ the  governed,”  whose  consent  is 
affirmed  to  be  the  only  source  of  just  power,  are  meant  for  that 
half  of  mankind  only,  who,  in  relation  to  the  other,  have  hitherto 
assumed  the  character  of  governors.  The  contradiction  between 
principle  and  practice  cannot  be  explained  away.  A like  derelic- 
tion of  the  fundamental  maxims  of  their  political  creed  has  been 
committed  by  the  Americans  in  the  flagrant  instance  of  the 
negroes ; of  this  they  are  learning  to  recognize  the  turpitude. 
After  a struggle  which,  by  many  of  its  incidents,  deserves  the 
name  of  heroic,  the  abolitionists  are  now  so  strong  in  numbers  and 
influence,  that  they  hold  the  balance  of  parties  in  the  United 
States.  It  was  fitting  that  the  men  whose  names  will  remain 
associated  with  the  extirpation  from  the  democratic  soil  of 
’America  of  the  aristocracy  of  color,  should  be  among  the  origin- 
ators, for  America  and  for  the  rest  of  the  world,  of  the  first  col- 
lective protest  against  the  aristocracy  of  sex ; a distinction  as 
accidental  as  that  of  color,  and  fully  as  irrelevant  to  all  questions 
of  government. 

Not  only  to  the  democracy  of  America  the  claim  of  women  to 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


5 


civil  and  political  equality  makes  an  irresistible  appeal,  but  also 
to  those  radicals  and  chartists  in  the  British  islands,  and  demo- 
crats on  the  continent,  who  claim  what  is  called  universal  suffrage 
as  an  inherent  right,  unjustly  and  oppressively  withheld  from 
them.  For  with  what  truth  or  rationality  could  the  suffrage  be 
termed  universal,  while  half  the  human  species  remain  excluded 
from  it  ? To  declare  that  a voice  in  the  government  is  the  right 
of  all,  and  demand  it  only  for  a part,  — the  part,  namely,  to  which 
the  claimant  himself  belongs, — is  to  renounce  even  the  appear- 
ance of  principle.  The  chartist  who  denies  the  suffrage  to  women 
is  a chartist  only  because  he  is  not  a lord ; he  is  one  of  those 
levellers  who  would  level  only  down  to  themselves. 

Even  those  who  do  not  look  upon  a voice  in  the  government  as 
a matter  of  personal  right,  nor  profess  principles  which  require 
that  it  should  be  extended  to  all,  have  usually  traditional  maxims 
of  political  justice,  with  which  it  is  impossible  to  reconcile  the  ex- 
clusion of  all  women  from  the  common  rights  of  citizenship.  It  is 
an  axiom  of  English  freedom,  that  taxation  and  representation 
should  be  coextensive.  Even  under  the  laws  which  give  the 
wife’s  property  to  the  husband,  there  are  many  unmarried  women 
who  pay  taxes.  It  is  one  of  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the 
British  constitution,  that  all  persons  should  be  tried  by  their  peers; 
yet  women,  whenever  tried,  are  tried  by  male  judges  and  a male 
jury.  To  foreigners,  the  law  accords  the  privilege  of  claiming 
that  half  the  jury  should  be  composed  of  themselves ; not  so  to 
women.  Apart  from  maxims  of  detail,  which  represent  local  and 
national,  rather  than  universal  ideas,  it  is  an  acknowledged  dic- 
tate of  justice,  to  make  no  degrading  distinctions  without  neces- 
sity. In  all  things,  the  presumption  ought  to  be  on  the  side  of 
equality.  A reason  must  be  given  why  anything  should  be  per- 
mitted to  one  person,  and  interdicted  to  another.  But  when  that 
which  is  interdicted  includes  nearly  everything  which  those  to 
whom  it  is  permitted  most  prize,  and  to  be  deprived  of  which  they 
feel  to  be  most  insulting ; when  not  only  political  liberty,  but  per- 
sonal freedom  of  action,  is  the  prerogative  of  a caste  ; when  even, 
in  the  exercise  of  industry,  almost  all  employments  which  th£k  fh© 


6 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


higher  facult.es  in  an  important  field,  which  lead  to  distinction, 
riches,  or  even  pecuniary  independence,  are  fenced  round  as  the  ex- 
elusive  domain  of  the  predominant  section,  scarcely  any  doors  being 
left  open  to  the  dependent  class,  except  such  as  all  who  can  enter 
elsewhere  disdainfully  pass  by ; the  miserable  expediencies  which 
are  advanced  as  excuses  for  so  grossly  partial  a dispensation 
would  not  be  sufficient,  even  if  they  were  real,  to  render  it  other 
than  a flagrant  injustice.  While,  far  from  being  expedient,  we 
are  firmly  convinced  that  the  division  of  mankind  into  two  castes, 
one  born  to  rule  over  the  other,  is,  in  this  case,  as  in  all  cases,  an 
unqualified  mischief ; a source  of  perversion  and  demoralization, 
both  to  the  favored  class  and  to  those  at  whose  expense  they  are 
favored ; producing  none  of  the  good  which  it  is  the  custom  to 
ascribe  to  it,  and  forming  a bar,  almost  insuperable,  while  it  lasts, 
to  any  really  vital  improvement,  either  in  the  character  or  in  the 
social  condition  of  the  human  race. 

These  propositions  it  is  now  our  purpose  to  maintain.  But, 
before  entering  on  them,  we  would  endeavor  to  dispel  the  prelimi- 
nary objections  which,  in  the  minds  of  persons  to  whom  the  subject 
is  new,  are  apt  to  prevent  a real  and  conscientious  examination  of 
it.  The  chief  of  these  obstacles  is  that  most  formidable  one  — 
custom.  Women  never  have  had  eoual  rights  with  men.  The  claim 
in  their  behalf,  of  the  common  rights  of  mankind,  is  looked  upon  as 
barred  by  universal  practice.  This  strongest  of  prejudices,  the 
prejudice  against  what  is  new  and  unknown,  has,  indeed,  in  an  age 
of  changes  like  the  present,  lost  much  of  its  force ; if  it  had  not, 
there  would  be  little  hope  of  prevailing  against  it.  Over  three 
fourths  of  the  habitable  world,  even  at  this  day,  the  answer,  “ It 
has  always  been  so,”  closes  all  discussion.  But  it  is  the  boast  of 
modern  Europeans,  and  of  their  American  kindred,  that  they  know 
and  do  many  things  which  their  forefathers  neither  knew  nor  did ; 
and  it  is,  perhaps,  the  most  unquestionable  point  of  superiority  in 
the  present,  above  former  ages,  that  habit  is  not  now  the  tyrant  it 
formerly  was  over  opinions  and  modes  of  action,  and  that  the 
worship  of  custom  is  a declining  idolatry.  An  uncustomary 
thought,  on  a subject  which  touches  the  greater  interests  of  life, 


ENI  /RAN  CHI  SEMEN  T OF  WOMEN. 


7 


still  startles  w .en  first  presented ; but  if  it  can  be  kept  before  the 
mind  until  the  impression  of  strangeness  wears  off,  it  obtains  a 
hearing,  and  as  rational  a consideration  as  the  intellect  of  the 
hearer  is  accustomed  to  bestow  on  any  other  subject. 

In  the  present  case,  the  prejudice  of  custom  is  doubtless  on  the 
unjust  side.  Great  thinkers,  indeed,  at  different  times,  from  Plato 
to  Condorcet,  besides  some  of  the  most  eminent  names  of  the 
present  age,  have  made  emphatic  protests  in  favor  of  the  equality 
of  women.  And  there  have  been  voluntary  societies,  religious  or 
secular,  of  which  the  Society  of  Friends  is  the  most  known,  by 
whom  that  principle  was  recognized.  But  there  has  been  no  polit- 
ical community  or  nation  in  which,  by  law,  and  usage,  women 
have  not  been  in  a state  of  political  and  civil  inferiority.  In  the 
ancient  world,  the  same  fact  was  alleged,  with  equal  truth,  in 
behalf  of  slavery.  It  might  have  been  alleged  in  favor  of  the 
mitigated  form  of  slavery,  serfdom,  all  through  the  middle  ages. 
It  was  urged  against  freedom  of  industry,  freedom  of  conscience, 
freedom  of  the  press ; none  of  these  liberties  were  thought  com- 
patible with  a well-ordered  state,  until  they  had  proved  their  pos- 
sibility by  actually  existing  as  facts.  That  an  institution  or  a 
practice  is  customary,  is  no  presumption  of  its  goodness,  when  any 
other  sufficient  cause  can  be  assigned  for  its  existence.  There 
is  no  difficulty  in  understand^  why  the  subjection  of  women  has 
been  a custom.  No  other  explanation  is  needed  than  physical 
force. 

That  those  who  were  physically  weaker  should  have  been  made 
legally  inferior,  is  quite  conformable  to  the  mode  in  which  the 
world  has  been  governed.  Until  very  lately,  the  rule  of  physical 
strength  was  the  general  law  of  human  affairs.  Throughout 
history,  the  nations,  races,  classes,  which  found  themselves  the 
strongest,  either  in  muscles,  in  riches,  or  in  military  discipline, 
have  conquered  and  held  in  subjection  the  rest.  If,  even  in  the 
most  improved  nations,  the  law  of  the  sword  is  at  last  discounte- 
nanced as  unworthy,  it  is  only  since  the  calumniated  eighteenth 
century.  Wars  of  conquest  have  only  ceased  since  democratic 
revolutions  began.  The  world  is  very  young,  and  has  but  just 


8 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


begun  to  cast  off  injustice.  It  is  only  now  getting  rid  of  negro 
slavery.  It  is  only  now  getting  rid  of  monarchical  despotism.  It 
is  only  now  getting  rid  of  hereditary  feudal  nobility.  It  is  only 
now  getting  rid  of  disabilities  on  the  ground  of  religion.  It  is 
only  beginning  to  treat  any  men  as  citizens,  except  the  rich  and  a 
favored  portion  of  the  middle  class.  Can  we  wonder  that  it  has 
not  yet  done*  as  much  for  women  ? As  society  was  constituted 
until  the  last  few  generations,  inequality  was  its  very  basis ; as- 
sociation grounded  on  equal  rights  scarcely  existed ; to  be  equals 
was  to  be  enemies ; two  persons  could  hardly  cooperate  in  any- 
thing, or  meet  in  any  amicable  relation,  without  the  law’s  appoint- 
ing that  one  of  them  should  be  the  superior  of  the  other.  Man- 
kind have  outgrown  this  state,  and  all  things  now  tend  to  substi- 
tute, as  the  general  principle  of  human  relations,  a just  equality 
instead  of  the  dominion  of  the  strongest.  But,  of  all  relations, 
that  between  men  and  women  being  the  nearest  and  most  intimate, 
and  connected  with  the  greatest  number  of  strong  emotions,  was 
sure  to  be  the  last  to  throw  off  the  old  rule  and  receive  the  new ; 
for,  in  proportion  to  the  strength  of  a feeling,  is  the  tenacity  with 
which  it  clings  to  the  forms  and  circumstances  with  which  it  has 
even  accidentally  become  associated. 

When  a prejudice  which  has  any  hold  on  the  feelings  finds 
itself  reduced  to  the  unpleasant  necessity  of  assigning  reasons,  it 
thinks  it  has  done  enough  when  it  has  reasserted  the  very  point 
in  dispute,  in  phrases  which  appeal  to  the  preexisting  feeling. 
Thus,  many  persons  think  they  have  sufficiently  justified  the 
restrictions  on  women’s  field  of  action  when  they  have  said  that 
the  pursuits  from  which  women  are  excluded  are  unfeminine,  and 
that  the  proper  sphere  of  women  is  not  politics  or  publicity,  but 
private  and  domestic  life. 

We  deny  the  right  of  any  portion  of  the  species  to  decide  for 
another  portion,  or  any  individual  for  another  individual,  what  is 
and  what  is  not  their  “ proper  sphere.”  The  proper  sphere  for 
all  human  beings  is  the  largest  and  highest  which  they  are  able  to 
attain  to.  What  this  is,  cannot  be  ascertained  without  complete 
liberty  of  choice.  The  speakers  at  the  convention  in  America 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


9 


have,  thei  ffore,  done  wisely  and  right  in  refusing  to  entertain  the 
question  of  the  peculiar  aptitudes  either  of  women  or  of  men,  or 
the  limits  within  which  this  or  that  occupation  may  be  supposed 
to  be  more  adapted  to  the  one  or  to  the  other.  They  justly  main- 
tain that  these  questions  can  only  be  satisfactorily  answered  by 
perfect  freedom.  Let  every  occupation  be  open  to  all,  without 
favor  or  discouragement  to  any,  and  employments  will  fall  into 
the  hands  of  those  men  or  women  who  are  found  by  experience  to 
be  most  capable  of  worthily  exercising  them.  There  need  be  no 
fear  that  women  will  take  out  of  the  hands  of  men  any  occupa- 
tion which  men  perform  better  than  they.  Each  individual  will 
prove  his  or  her  capacities,  in  the  only  way  in  which  capacities 
can  be  proved,  by  trial ; and  the  world  will  have  the  benefit  of 
the  best  faculties  of  all  its  inhabitants.  But  to  interfere  before- 
hand by  an  arbitrary  limit,  and  declare  that  whatever  be  the 
genius,  talent,  energy,  or  force  of  mind,  of  an  individual  of  a cer- 
tain sex  or  class,  those  faculties  shall  not  be  exerted,  or  shall  be 
exerted  only  in  some  few  of  the  many  modes  in  which  others  are 
permitted  to  use  theirs,  is  not  only  an  injustice  to  the  individual, 
and  a detriment  to  society,  which  loses  what  it  can  ill  spare,  but 
is  also  the  most  effectual  mode  of  providing  that,  in  the  sex  or 
class  so  fettered,  the  qualities  which  are  not  permitted  to  be  exer- 
cised shall  not  exist. 

We  shall  follow  the  very  proper  example  of  the  convention,  in 
not  entering  into  the  question  of  the  alleged  differences  in  physical 
or  mental  qualities  between  the  sexes ; not  because  we  have  noth- 
ing to  say,  but  because  we  have  too  much  : to  discuss  this  one 
point  tolerably  would  need  all  the  space  we  have  to  bestow  on  the 
entire  subject.^  But  if  those  who  assert  that  the  “ proper  sphere” 

* An  excellent  passage  on  this  part  of  the  subject,  from  one  of  Sydney 
Smith’s  contributions  to  the  Edinburgh  Review , we  will  not  refrain  from  quot- 
ing : “ A great  deal  hi*3  been  said  of  the  original  difference  of  capacity 
between  men  and  womer  as  if  women  were  more  quick  and  men  more  judi- 
cious ; as  if  women  wer*  more  remarkable  for  delicacy  of  association,  and 
men  for  stronger  powers  of  attention.  All  this,  we  confess,  appears  to  us 
very  fanciful.  That  there  is  a difference  in  the  understandings  of  the  men 
3 


10 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


for  women  is  the  domestic  mean  by  this  that  they  have  not  shown 
themselves  qualified  for  any  other,  the  assertion  evinces  great 
ignorance  of  life  and  of  history.  Women  have  shown  fitness  for 
the  highest  social  functions  exactly  in  proportion  as  they  have 
been  admitted  to  them.  By  a curious  anomaly,  though  ineligible 
to  even  the  lowest  offices  of  state,  they  are  in  some  countries 
admitted  to  the  highest  of  all,  the  regal ; and  if  there  is  any  one 
function  for  which  they  have  shown  a decided  vocation,  it  is  that 
of  reigning.  Not  to  go  back  to  ancient  history,  we  look  in  vain 
for  abler  or  firmer  rulers  than  Elizabeth  ; than  Isabella  of  Cas- 
tile ; than  Maria  Theresa  ; than  Catharine  of  Russia ; than 
Blanche,  mother  of  Louis  IX.  of  France;  than  Jeanne  d’Albret, 
mother  of  Henri  Quatre.  There  are  few  kings  on  record  who 
contended  with  more  difficult  circumstances,  or  overcame  them 
more  triumphantly,  than  these.  Even  in  semi-barbarous  Asia, 
princesses  who  have  never  been  seen  by  men  other  than  those  of 
their  own  family,  or  ever  spoken  with  them  unless  from  behind  a 
curtain,  have,  as  regents,  during  the  minority  of  their  sons,  exhib- 
ited many  of  the  most  brilliant  examples  of  just  and  vigorous 
administration.  In  the  middle  ages,  when  the  distance  between 
the  upper  and  lower  ranks  was  greater  than  even  between  women 
and  men,  and  the  women  of  the  privileged  class,  however  subject 
to  tyranny  from  men  of  the  same  class,  were  at  a less  distance 
below  them  than  any  one  else  was,  and  often  in  their  absence  rep- 
resented them  in  their  functions  and  authority,  numbers  of  heroic 

and  the  women  we  every  day  meet  with,  everybody,  we  suppose,  must  per- 
ceive ; but  there  is  none,  surely,  which  may  not  be  accounted  for  by  the  dif- 
ference of  circumstances  in  which  they  have  been  placed,  without  referring 
to  any  conjectural  difference  of  original  conformation  of  mind.  As  long  as 
boys  and  girls  run  about  in  the  dirt,  and  trundle  hoops  together,  they  arc 
both  precisely  alike.  If  you  catch  up  one  half  of  these  creatures,  and  train 
them  to  a particular  set  of  actions  and  opinions,  and  the  other  half  to  a 
perfectly  opposite  set,  of  course  their  understandings  will  differ,  as  one  or 
the  other  sort  of  occupations  has  called  this  or  that  talent  into  action. 
There  is  surely  no  occasion  to  go  into  any  deeper  or  more  abstruse  reason- 
ing, in  order  to  explain  so  very  simplo  a phenomenon.” — Sydney  Smith's 
Works , vol.  i.t  j . 200. 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


11 


chatelaines,  like  Jeanne  de  Montfort,  or  the  great  Countess  of 
Derby,  as  late  even  as  the  time  of  Charles  I.,  distinguished  them- 
selves, not  only  by  their  political,  but  their  military  capacity.  In 
the  centuries  immediately  before  and  after  the  Reformation,  ladies 
of  royal  houses,  as  diplomatists,  as  governors  of  provinces,  or  as 
the  confidential  advisers  of  kings,  equalled  the  first  statesmen  of 
their  time;  and  the  treaty  of  Cambray,  which  gave  peace  to 
Europe,  wras  negotiated,  in  conferences  where  no  other  person  was 
present,  by  the  aunt  of  the  Emperor  Charles  the  Fifth,  and  the 
mother  of  Francis  the  First. 

Concerning  the  fitness,  then,  of  women  for  politics,  there  can  be 
no  question : but  the  dispute  is  more  likely  to  turn  upon  the  fit- 
ness of  politics  for  women.  When  the  reasons  alleged  for  exclud- 
ing women  from  active  life  in  all  its  higher  departments  are 
stripped  of  their  garb  of  declamatory  phrases,  and  reduced  to  the 
simple  expression  of  a meaning,  they  seem  to  be  mainly  three  : 
the  incompatibility  of  active  life  with  maternity,  and  with  the 
cares  of  a household ; secondly,  its  alleged  hardening  effect  on  the 
character ; and,  thirdly,  the  inexpediency  of  making  an  addition 
to  the  already  excessive  pressure  of  competition  in  every  kind  of 
professional  or  lucrative  employment. 

The  first,  the  maternity  argument,  is  usually  laid  most  stress 
upon ; although  (it  needs  hardly  be  said)  this  reason,  if  it  be  one, 
can  apply  only  to  mothers.  It  is  neither  necessary  nor  just  to 
make  imperative  on  women  that  they  shall  be  either  mothers  or 
nothing ; or,  that  if  they  had  been  mothers  once,  they  shall  be 
nothing  else  during  the  whole  remainder  of  their  lives.  Neither 
women  nor  men  need  any  law  to  exclude  them  from  an  occupation, 
if  they  have  undertaken  another  which  is  incompatible  with  it. 
No  one  proposes  to  exclude  the  male  sex  from  parliament  because 
a man  may  be  a soldier  or  sailor  in  active  service,  or  a merchant 
whose  business  requires  all  his  time  and  energies.  Nine  tenths  of 
the  occupations  of  men  exclude  them  de  facto  from  public  life,  as 
effectually  as  if  they  were  excluded  by  law  ; but  that  is  no  reason 
for  making  laws  to  exclude  even  the  nine  tenths,  much  less  the 
remaining  tenth.  The  reason  of  the  case  is  the  same  for  women 


12 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


a 3 for  men.  • There  is  no  need  to  make  provision  by  law  that  a 
woman  shall  not  carry  on  the  active  details  of  a household,  or  of 
the  education  of  children,  and  at  the  same  time  practise  a profes- 
sion or  be  elected  to  parliament.  Where  incompatibility  is  real, 
it  will  take  care  of  itself ; but  there  is  gross  injustice  in  making 
the  incompatibility  a pretence  for  the  exclusion  of  those  in  whose 
case  it  does  not  exist!  And  these,  if  they  were  free  to  choose, 
would  be  a very  large  proportion.  The  maternity  argument 
deserts  its  supporters  in  the  case  of  single  women,  a large  and 
increasing  class  of  the  population  — a fact  which,  it  is  not  irrel- 
evant to  remark,  by  tending  to  diminish  the  excessive  competition 
of  numbers,  is  calculated  to  assist  greatly  the  prosperity  of  all. 
There  is  no  inherent  reason  or  necessity  that  all  women  should 
voluntarily  choose  to  devote  their  lives  to  one  animal  function  and 
its  consequences.  Numbers  of  women  are  wives  and  mothers  only 
becifuse  there  is  no  other  career  open  to  them,  no  other  occupation 
for  their  feelings  or  their  activities.  Every  improvement  in  their 
education  and  enlargement  of  their  faculties,  everything  which 
renders  them  more  qualified  for  any  other  mode  of  life,  increases 
the  number  of  those  to  whom  it  is  an  injury  and  an  oppression  to 
be  denied  the  choice.  To  say  that  women  must  be  excluded  from 
active  life  because  maternity  disqualifies  them  for  it,  is  in  fact  to 
say  that  every  other  career  should  be  forbidden  them,  in  order 
that  maternity  may  be  their  only  resource. 

r'-~ 

But,  secondly,  it  is  urged,  that  to  give  the  same  freedom  of  occu- 
pation to  women  as  to  men,  would  be  an  injurious  addition  to  the 
crowd  of  competitors,  by  whom  the  avenues  to  almost  all  kinds  of 
employment  are  choked  up,  and  its  remuneration  depressed.  This 
argument,  it  is  to  be  observed,  does  not  reach  the  political  ques- 
tion. It  gives  no  excuse  for  withholding  from  women  the  rights 
of  citizenship.  The  suffrage,  the  jury-box,  admission  to  the  legis- 
lature and  to  office,  it  does  not  touch.  It  bears  only  on  the 
industrial  branch  of  the  subject.  Allowing  it,  then,  in  an  econom- 
ical point  of  view,  its  full  force,  — assuming  that  to  lay  open  to 
women  the  employments  now  mononolized  by  men  would  tend. 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


13 


like  the  breaking  down  of  other  monopolies,  to  lower  the  rate  of 
remuneration  in  those  employments,  — let  us  consider  what  is  the 
amount  of  this  evil  consequence,  and  what  the  compensation  for  it. 
The  worst  ever  asserted,  much  worse  than  is  at  all  likely  to  be 
realized,  is,  that  if  women  competed  with  men,  a man  and  a woman 
could  not  together  earn  more  than  is  now  earned  by  the  man 
alone.  Let  us  make  this  supposition,  the  most  unfavorable  sup- 
position possible : the  joint  income  of  the  two  would  be  the  same 
as  before,  while  the  woman  would  be  raised  from  the  position  of  a 
servant  to  that  of  a partner.  Even  if  every  woman,  as  matters 
now  stand,  had  a claim  on  some  man  for  support,  how  infinitely 
preferable  is  it  that  part  of  the  income  should  be  of  the  woman’s 
earning,  even  if  the  aggregate  sum  were  but  little  increased  by  it, 
rather  than  that  she  should  be  compelled  to  stand  aside  in  order 
that  men  may  be  the  sole  earners,  and  the  sole  dispensers  of  what 
is  earned ! Even  under  the  present  laws  respecting  the  property 
of  women,  * a woman  who  contributes  materially  to  the  support 
of  the  family  cannot  be  treated  in  the  same  contemptuously  tyran- 
nical manner  as  one  who,  however  she  may  toil  as  a domestic 
drudge,  is  a dependent  on  the  man  for  subsistence.  As  for  the 
depression  of  wages  by  increase  of  competition,  remedies  will  be 
found  for  it  in  time.  Palliatives  might  be  applied  immediately ; 
for  instance,  a more  rigid  exclusion  of  children  from  industrial  em- 
ployment, during  the  years  in  which  they  ought  to  be  working  only 
to  strengthen  their  bodies  and  minds  for  after  life.  Children  are 
necessarily  dependent,  and  under  the  power  of  others ; and  their 
labor,  being  not  for  themselves,  but  for  the  gain  of  their  parents, 
is  a proper  subject  for  legislative  regulation.  With  respect  to  the 
future,  we  neither  believe  that  improvident  multiplication,  and 

* The  truly  horrible  effects  of  the  present  state  of  the  law  among  the  lowest 
of  the  working  population  is  exhibited  in  those  cases  of  hideous  mal-treat- 
ment  of  their  wives  by  working  men,  with  which  every  newspaper,  every 
police  report,  teems.  Wretches  unfit  to  have  the  smallest  authority  over 
any  living  thing  have  a helpless  woman  for  their  household  slave.  These 
excesses  could  not  exist  if  women  both  earned  and  had  the  right  to  pos- 
sess a part  of  the  income  of  the  family. 


14 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


the  consequent  excessive  difficulty  of  gaining  a .subsistence,  will 
always  continue,  nor  that  the  division  of  mankind  into  capitalists 
and  hired  laborers,  and  the  regulation  of  the  reward  of  laborers 
mainly  by  demand  and  supply,  will  be  forever,  or  even  much 
longer,  the  rule  of  the  world.  But  so  long  as  competition  is  the 
general  law  of  human  life,  it  is  tyranny  to  shut  out  one  half  of  the 
competitors.  All  who  have  attained  the  age  of  self-government 
have  an  equal  claim  to  be  permitted  to  sell  whatever  kind  of 
useful  labor  they  are  capable  of,  for  the  price  which  it  will  bring. 

The  third  objection  to  the  admission  of  women  to  political  or 
professional  life,  its  alleged  hardening  tendency,  belongs  to  an  age 
now  past,  and  is  scarcely  to  be  comprehended  by  people  of  the 
present  time.  There  are  still,  however,  persons  who  say  that  the 
world  and  its  avocations  render  men  selfish  and  unfeeling ; that 
the  struggles,  rivalries  and  collisions  of  business  and  of  politics, 
make  them  harsh  and  unamiable ; that  if  half  the  species  must 
unavoidably  be  given  up  to  these  things,  it  is  the  more  necessary 
that  the  other  half  should  be  kept  free  from  them ; that  to  pre- 
serve women  from  the  bad  influences  of  the  world  is  the  only 
chance  of  preventing  men  from  being  wholly  given  up  to  them. 

There  would  have  been  plausibility  in  this  argument  when  the 
world  was  still  in  the  age  of  violence ; when  life  was  full  of  phy- 
sical conflict,  and  every  man  had  to  redress  his  injuries,  or  those 
of  others,  by  the  sword  or  by  the  strength  of  his  arm.  Women, 
like  priests,  by  being  exempted  from  such  responsibilities,  and 
from  some  part  of  the  accompanying  dangers,  may  have  been 
enabled  to  exercise  a beneficial  influence.  But  in  the  present 
condition  of  human  life,  we  do  not  know  where  those  hardening 
influences  are  to  be  found,  to  which  men  are  subject,  and  from 
which  women  are  at  present  exempt.  Individuals  now-a-days  are 
seldom  called  upon  to  fight  hand  to  hand,  even  with  peaceful 
weapons ; personal  enmities  and  rivalries  count  for  little  in 
worldly  transactions ; the  general  pressure  of  circumstances,  not 
the  adverse  will  of  individuals,  is  the  obstacle  men  now  have  to 
make  head  against.  That  pressure,  when  excessive,  breaks  the 
spirit,  and  cramps  and  sours  the  feolingvS,  but  not  less  of  women 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


15 


than  of  men,  since  they  suffer  certainly  not  less  from  its  evils. 
There  are  still  quarrels  and  dislikes,  but  the  sources  of  them  are 
changed.  The  feudal  chief  once  found  his  bitterest  enemy  in  iiis 
powerful  neighbor,  the  minister  or  courtier  in  his  rival  for  place ; 
but  opposition  of  interest  in  active  life,  as  a cause  of  personal 
animosity,  is  out  of  date ; the  enmities  of  the  present  day  arise 
not  from  great  things,  but  small,  — from  what  people  say  of  one 
another,  more  than  from  what  they  do ; and  if  there  are  hatred, 
malice,  and  all  uncharitableness,  they  are  to  be  found  among 
women  fully  as  much  as  among  men.  In  the  present  state  of  civ- 
ilization, the  notion  of  guarding  women  from  the  hardening  influ- 
ences of  the  world  could  only  be  realized  by  secluding  them  from 
society  altogether.  The  common  duties  of  common  life,  as  at 
present  constituted,  are  incompatible  with  any  other  softness  in 
women  than  weakness.  Surely  weak  minds  in  weak  bodies  must 
ere  long  cease  to  be  even  supposed  to  be  either  attractive  or 
amiable. 

But,  in  truth,  none  of  these  arguments  and  considerations  touch 
the  foundations  of  the  subject.  The  real  question  is,  whether  it  is 
right  and  expedient  that  one  half  of  the  human  race  should  pass 
through  life  in  a state  of  forced  subordination  to  the  other  half. 
If  the  best  state  of  human  society  is  that  of  being  divided  into 
two  parts,  one  consisting  of  persons  with  a will  and  a substantive 
existence,  the  other  of  humble  companions  to  these  persons,  at- 
tached each  of  ‘them  to  one,  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  up  his 
children,  and  making  his  home  pleasant  to  him  ; if  this  is  the 
place  assigned  to  women,  it  is  but  kindness  to  educate  them  for 
this ; to  make  them  believe  that  the  greatest  good  fortune  which 
can  befall  them  is  to  be  chosen  by  some  man  for  this  purpose ; 
and  that  every  other  career  which  the  world  deems  happy  or  hon- 
orable is  closed  to  them  by  the  law,  not  of  social  institutions,  but 
of  nature  and  destiny. 

When,  however,  we  ask,  why  the  existence  of  one  half  the 
species  should  be  merely  ancillary  to  that  of  the  other,  — why  each 
woman  should  be  a mere  appendage  to  a man,  allowed  to  have  no 
interests  of  her  own,  that  there  may  be  nothing  to  compete  in  her 


16 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


mind  with  his  interests  and  his  pleasure,  — the  only  reason  which 
can  be  given  is,  that  u.en  like  it.  It  is  agreeable  to  them  that 
men  should  live  for  their  own  sake,  women  for  the  sake  of  men ; 
and  the  qualities  and  conduct  in  subjects  which  are  agreeable  to 
rulers  they  succeed  for  a long  time  in  making  the  subjects  them- 
selves consider  as  their  appropriate  virtues.  Helvetius  has  met 
with  much  obloquy  for  asserting  that  persons  usually  mean  by 
virtues  the  qualities  which  are  useful  or  convenient  to  themselves. 
How  truly  this  *is  said  of  mankind  in  general,  and  how  wonder- 
fully the  ideas  of  virtue,  set  afloat  by  the  powerful,  are  caught 
and  imbibed  by  those  under  their  dominion,  is  exemplified  by  the 
manner  in  which  the  world  were  once  persuaded  that  the  supreme 
virtue  of  subjects  was  loyalty  to  kings,  and  are  still  persuaded 
that  the  paramount  virtue  of  womanhood  is  loyalty  to  men. 
Under  a nominal  recognition  of  a moral  code  common  to  both,  in 
practice  self-will  and  self-assertion  form  the  type  of  what  are 
designated  as  manly  virtues,  while  abnegation  of  self,  patience, 
resignation,  and  submission  to  power,  unless  when  resistance  is 
commanded  by  other  interests  than  their  own,  have  been  stamped 
by  general  consent  as  preeminently  the  duties  and  graces  required 
of  women.  The  meaning  being,  merely,  that  power  makes  itself 
the  centre  of  moral  obligation,  and  that  a man  likes  to  have  his  own 
will,  but  does  not  like  that  his  domestic  companion  should  have  a 
will  different  from  his. 

We  are  far  from  pretending  that  in  modern  and  civilized  times 
no  reciprocity  of  obligation  is  acknowledged  on  the  part  of  the 
stronger.  Such  an  assertion  would  be  very  wide  of  the  truth. 
But  even  this  reciprocity,  which  has  disarmed  tyranny,  at  least  in 
the  higher  and  middle  classes,  of  its  most  revolting  features,  yet 
when  combined  with  the  original  evil  of  the  dependent  condition 
of  women,  has  introduced  in  its  turn  serious  evils. 

In  the  beginning,  and  among  tribes  which  are  still  in  a primitive 
condition,  women  were  and  are  the  slaves  of  men  for  the  purposes 
of  toil.  All  the  hard  bodily  labor  devolves  on  them.  The  Aus- 
tralian savage  is  idle,  while  women  painfully  dig  up  the  roots  on 
which  he  lives.  An  American  Indian,  when  he  has  killed  a deer, 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN, 


17 


leaves  it,  and  sends  a woman  to  carry  it  home.  In  a state  some- 
what more  advanced,  as  in  Asia,  women  were  and  are  the  slaves 
of  men  for  the  purposes  of  sensuality.  In  Europe,  there  early 
succeeded  a third  and  milder  dominion,  secured  not  by  blows,  nor 
by  locks  and  bars,  but  by  sedulous  inculcation  on  the  mind  ; feel- 
ings also  of  kindness,  and  ideas  of  duty,  such  as  a superior  owes 
to  inferiors  under  his  protection,  became  more  and  more  involved 
in  the  relation.  But  it  did  not,  for  many  ages,  become  a relation 
of  companionship,  even  between  unequals;  the  lives  of  the  two 
persons  were  apart.  The  wife  was  part  of  the  furniture  of 
home,  of  the  resting-place  to  which  the  man  returned  from  busi- 
ness or  pleasure.  His  occupations  were,  as  they  still  are,  among 
men;  his  pleasures  and  excitements  also  were,  for  the  most  part, 
among  men  — among  his  equals.  He  was  a patriarch  and  a despot 
within  four  walls,  and  irresponsible  power  had  its  effect,  greater 
or  less  according  to  his  disposition,  in  rendering  him  domineering, 
exacting,  self-worshipping,  when  not  capriciously  or  brutally 
tyrannical.  But  if  the  moral  part  of  his  nature  suffered,  it  was 
not  necessarily  so,  in  the  same  degree,  with  the  intellectual  or  the 
active  portion.  He  might  have  as  much  vigor  of  mind  and  en- 
ergy of  character  as  his  nature  enabled  him,  and  as  the  circum- 
stances of  his  times  allowed.  He  might  write  the  “ Paradise 
Lost,”  or  win  the  battle  of  Marengo.  This  was  the  condition  of 
the  Greeks  and  Homans,  and  of  the  moderns  until  a recent  date. 
Their  relations  with  their  domestic  subordinates  occupied  a mere 
corner,  though  a cherished  one,  of  their  lives.  Their  education  as 
men,  the  formation  of  their  character  and  faculties,  depended 
mainly  on  a different  class  of  influences. 

It  is  otherwise  now.  The  progress  of  improvement  has  imposed 
on  all  possessors  of  power,  and  of  domestic  power  among  the  rest, 
an  increased  and  increasing  sense  of  correlative  obligation.  No 
man  now  thinks  that  his  wife  has  no  claim  upon  his  actions,  but 
such  as  he  may  accord  to  her.  All  men,  of  any  conscience,  be- 
lieve that  their  -duty  to  their  wives  is  one  of  the  most  binding  of 
their  obligations.  Nor  is  it  supposed  to  consist  solely  in  protec- 
tion, which,  in  the  present  state  of  civilization,  women  have  almost 


18 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


ceased  to  need ; it  involves  care  for  their  happiness  and  consider- 
ation of  their  wishes,  with  a not  unfrequent  sacrifice  of  their  own 
to  them.  The  power  of  husbands  has  reached  the  stage  which  the 
power  of  kings  had  arrived  at,  when  opinion  did  not  yet  question 
the  rightfulness  of  arbitrary  power,  but  in  theory,  and  to  a certain 
extent  in  practice,  condemned  the  selfish  use  of  it.  This  im- 
provement in  the  moral  sentiments  of  mankind,  and  increased  sense 
of  the  consideration  due  by  every  man  to  those  who  have  no  one 
but  himself  to  look  to,  has  tended  to  make  home  more  and  more 
the  centre  of  interest,  and  domestic  circumstances  and  society  a 
larger  and  larger  part  of  life,  and  of  its  pursuits  and  pleasures. 
The  tendency  has  been  strengthened  by  the  changes  of  tastes  and 
manners  wrhich  have  so  remarkably  distinguished  the  last  two  or 
three  generations.  In  days  not  far  distant,  men  found  their  ex- 
citement and  filled  up  their  time  in  violent  bodily  exercises,  noisy 
merriment,  and  intemperance.  They  have  now,  in  all  but  the 
very  poorest  classes,  lost  their  inclination  for  these  things,  and  for 
the  coarser  pleasures  generally ; they  have  now  scarcely  any 
tastes  but  those  which  they  have  in  common  with  women,  and,  for 
the  first  time  in  the  world,  men  and  women  are  really  companions. 
A most  beneficial  change,  if  the  companionship  were  between 
equals ; but  being  between  unequals,  it  produces,  what  good 
observers  have  noticed,  though  without  perceiving  its  cause,  a pro- 
gressive deterioration  among  men  in  what  had  hitherto  been  con- 
sidered the  masculine  excellences.  Those  who  are  so  careful  that 
women  should  not  become  men,  do  not  see  that  men  are  becoming 
what  they  have  decided  that  women  should  be  — are  falling  into 
the  feebleness  which  they  have  so  long  cultivated  in  their  com- 
panions. Those  who  are  associated  in  their  lives  tend  to  become 
assimilated  in  character.  In  the  present  closeness  of  association 
between  the  sexes,  men  cannot  retain  manliness  unless  women 
acquire  it. 

There  is  hardly  any  situation  more  unfavorable  to  the  mainte- 
nance of  elevation  of  character  or  force  of  intellect,  than  to  live 
in  the  society,  and  seek  by  preference  the  sympathy,  of  inferiors 
in  mental  endowments.  Why  is  it  that  we  constantly  see  in  life 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


19 


so  much  of  intellectual  and  moral  promise  followed  by  such  inad- 
equate performance,  but  because  the  aspirant  has  compared  him- 
self only  with  those  below  himself,  and  has  not  sought  improvement 
or  stimulus  from  measuring  himself  with  his  equals  or  superiors? 
In  the  present  state  of  social  life,  this  is  becoming  the  general  con- 
dition of  men.  They  care  less  and  less  for  any  sympathies,  and 
are  less  and  less  under  any  personal  influences,  but  those  of  the 
domestic  roof.  Not  to  be  misunderstood,  it  is  necessary  that  wre 
should  distinctly  disclaim  the  belief  that  women  are  even  now 
inferior  in  intellect  to  men.  There  are  women  who  are  the  equals 
in  intellect  of  any  men  who  ever  lived;  and,  comparing  ordinary 
women  with  ordinary  men,  the  varied  though  petty  details  which 
compose  the  occupation  of  women  call  forth  probably  as  much  of 
mental  ability  as  the  uniform  routine  of  the  pursuits  which  are 
the  habitual  occupation  of  a large  majority  of  men.  It  is  from 
nothing  in  the  faculties  themselves,  but  from  the  petty  subjects 
and  interests  on  which  alone  they  are  exercised,  that  the  com- 
panionship of  women,  such  as  their  present  circumstances  make 
them,  so  often  exercises  a dissolvent  influence  on  high  faculties 
and  aspirations  in  men.  If  one  of  the  two  has  no  knowledge  and 
no  care  about  the  great  ideas  and  purposes  which  dignify  life,  or 
about  any  of  its  practical  concerns  save  personal  interests  and 
personal  vanities,  her  conscious,  and  still  more  her  unconscious 
influence,  will,  except  in  rare  cases,  reduce  to  a secondary  place 
in  his  mind,  if  not  entirely  extinguish,  those  interests  which  she 
cannot  or  does  not  share.  Our  argument  here  brings  us  into  col- 
lision with  what  may  be  termed  the  moderate  reformers  of  the 
education  of  women ; a sort  of  persons  who  cross  the  path  of  im- 
provement on  all  great  questions ; those  wrho  wrould  maintain  the 
old  bad  principles,  mitigating  their  consequences.  These  say, 
that  women  should  be,  not  slaves  nor  servants,  but  companions, 
and  educated  for  that  office  (they  do  not  say  that  men  should  be 
educated  to  be  the  companions  of  women).  But  since  unculti- 
vated women  are  not  suitable  companions  for  cultivated  men,  and 
a man  who  feels  interest  in  things  above  and  beyond  the  family 
circle  wishes  that  his  companion  shorn  i sympathize  with  him  in 


20 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


that  interest,  they  therefore  say,  let  women  improve  their  under- 
standing and  taste,  acquire  general  knowledge,  cultivate  poetry, 
art,  even  coquet  with  science,  and  some  stretch  their  liberality  so 
far  as  to  say,  inform  themselves  on  politics  ; not  as  pursuits,  but 
sufficiently  to  feel  an  interest  in  the  subjects,  and  to  be  capable 
of  holding  a conversation  on  them  with  the  husband,  or  at  least 
of  understanding  and  imbibing  his  wisdom.  Very  agreeable  to 
him,  no  doubt,  but  unfortunately  the  reverse  of  improving.  It  is 
from  having  intellectual  communion  only  with  those  to  whom  they 
can  lay  down  the  law,  that  so  few  men  continue  to  advance  in 
wisdom  beyond  the  first  stages.  The  most  eminent  men  cease  to 
improve  if  they  associate  only  with  disciples.  When  they  have 
overtopped  those  who  immediately  surround  them,  if  they  wish 
for  further  growth,  they  must  seek  for  others  of  their  own  stature 
to  consort  with.  The  mental  companionship  which  is  improving 
is  communion  between  active  minds,  not  mere  contact  between  an 
active  mind  and  a passive.  This  inestimable  advantage  is  even 
now  enjoyed  when  a strong-minded  man  and  a strong-minded 
woman  are,  by  a rare  chance,  united ; and  would  be  had  far 
oftener,  if  education  took  the  same  pains  to  form  strong-minded 
women  which  it  takes  to  prevent  them  from  being  formed.  The 
modern,  and  what  are  regarded  as  the  improved  and  enlightened 
modes  of  education  of  women,  abjure,  as  far  as  words  go,  an  edu- 
cation of  mere  show,  and  profess  to  aim  at  solid  instruction,  but 
mean  by  that  expression  superficial  information  on  solid  subjects. 
Except  accomplishments,  which  are  now  generally  regarded  as  to 
be  taught  well,  if  taught  at  all,  nothing  is  taught  to  women  thor- 
oughly. Small  portions  only  of  what  it  is  attempted  to  teach  thor- 
oughly  to  boys  are  the  whole  of  what  it  is  intended  or  desired  to 
teach  to  women.  What  makes  intelligent  beings  is  the  power  of 
thought ; the  stimuli  which  call  forth  that  power  are  the  interest 
and  dignity  of  thought  itself,  and  a field  for  its  practical  applica- 
tion. Both  motives  are  cut  off  from  those  who  are  told  from 
infancy  that  thought,  and  all  its  greater  applications,  are  other 
people’s  business,  while  theirs  is  to  make  themselves  agreeable  to 
Ather  people,  High  mental  powers  in  women  will  be  but  an  ex 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


21 


ceptional  accident,  until  every  career  is  open  to  them,  and  until 
they,  as  well  as  men,  are  educated  for  themselves  and  for  the 
world,  — not  one  sex  for  the  other. 

In  what  we  have  said  on  the  effect  of  the  inferior  position  of 
women,  combined  with  the  present  constitution  of  married  life,  we 
have  thus  far  had  in  view  only  the  most  favorable  cases,  those  in 
which  there  is  some  real  approach  to  that  union  and  blending  of 
characters  and  of  lives  which  the  theory  of  the  relation  contem- 
plates as  its  ideal  standard.  But  if  we  look  to  the  great  major- 
ity of  cases,  the  effect  of  women’s  legal  inferiority  on  the  charac- 
ter both  of  women  and  of  men  must  be  painted  in  far  darker  col- 
ors. We  do  not  speak  here  of  the  grosser  brutalities,  nor  of  the 
man’s  power  to  seize  on  the  woman’s  earnings,  or  compel  her  to 
live  with  him  against  her  will.  We  do  not  address  ourselves  to 
any  one  who  requires  to  have  it  proved  that  these  things  should 
be  remedied.  We  suppose  average  cases,  in  which  there  is  neither 
complete  union  nor  complete  disunion  of  feelings  and  of  charac- 
ter ; and  we  affirm  that  in  such  cases  the  influence  of  the  depend- 
ence on  the  woman’s  side  is  demoralizing  to  the  character  of 
both. 

The  common  opinion  is,  that,  whatever  may  be  the  case  with 
the  intellectual,  the  moral  influence  of  women  over  men  is  almost 
always  salutary.  It  is,  we  are  often  told,  the  great  counteractive 
of  selfishness.  However  the  case  may  be  as  to  personal  influ- 
ence, the  influence  of  the  position  tends  eminently  to  promote 
selfishness.  The  most  insignificant  of  men,  the  man  who  can  ob- 
tain influence  or  consideration  nowhere  else,  finds  one  place  where 
he  is  chief  and  head.  There  is  one  person,  often  greatly  his  supe- 
rior in  understanding,  who  is  obliged  to  consult  him,  and  whom 
he  is  not  obliged  to  consult.  He  is  judge,  magistrate,  ruler,  over 
their  joint  concerns  ; arbiter  of  all  differences  between  them.  The 
justice  or  conscience  to  which,  her  appeal  must  be  made  is  his  jus- 
tice and  conscience ; it  is  his  to  hold  the  balance  and  adjust  the 
scales  between  his  owTn  claims  or  wishes  and  those  of  another. 
He  is  how  the  only  tribunal,  in  civilized  life,  in  ^hich  the  same 
person  is  judge  and  party.  A generous  mind,  in  such  a situation, 


22 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


makes  the  balance  incline  against  its  own  side,  and  gives  the. 
other  not  less,  but  more  than  a fair  equality ; and  thus  the 
weaker  side  may  be  enabled  to  turn  the  very  fact  of  dependence 
into  an  instrument  of  power,  and,  in  default  of  justice,  take  an  un- 
generous advantage  of  generosity  ; rendering  the  unjust  power,  to 
those  who  make  an  unselfish  use  of  it,  a torment  and  a burthen. 
But  how  is  it  when  average  men  are  invested  with  this  power, 
without  reciprocity  and  without  responsibility  ? Give  such  a man 
the  idea  that  he  is  first  in  law  and  in  opinion,  — that  to  will  is 
his  part,  and  hers  to  submit ; it  is  absurd  to  suppose  that  this 
idea  merely  glides  over  his  mind,  without  sinking  into  it,  or  hav- 
ing any  effect  on  his  feelings  and  practice.  The  propensity  to 
make  himself  the  first  object  of  consideration,  and  others  at  most 
the  second,  is  not  so  rare  as  to  be  wanting  where  everything 
seems  purposely  arranged  for  permitting  its  indulgence.  If  there 
is  any  self-will  in  the  man,  he  becomes  either  the  conscious  or 
unconscious  despot  of  his  household.  The  wife,  indeed,  often  suc- 
3eeds  in  gaining  her  objects,  but  it  is  by  some  of  the  many  various 
forms  of  indirectness  and  management. 

Thus  the  position  is  corrupting  equally  to  both ; in  the  one 
it  produces  the  vices  of  power,  in  the  other  those  of  artifice. 
Women,  in  their  present  physical  and  moral  state,  having  stronger 
impulses,  would  naturally  be  franker  and  more  direct  than  men ; 
yet  all  the  old  saws  and  traditions  represent  them  as  artful  and 
dissembling.  Why  ? Because  their  only  way  to  their  objects  is 
by  indirect  paths.  In  all  countries  where  women  have  strong 
wishes  and  active  minds,  this  consequence  is  inevitable  ; and  if  it 
is  less  conspicuous  in  England  than  in  some  other  places,  it  is 
because  English  women,  saving  occasional  exceptions,  have  ceased 
to  have  either  strong  wishes  or  active  minds. 

We  are  not  now  speaking  of  cases  in  which  there  is  anything 
leserving  the  name  of  strong  affection  on  both  sides.  That, 
where  it  exists,  is  too  powerful  a principle  not  to  modify  greatly 
the  bad  influences  of  the  situation ; it  seldom,  however,  destroys 
them  entirely  Much  oftener  the  bad  influences  are  too  strong  for 
thf*  affection,  and  destroy  it.  The  highest  order  of  durable  and 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


23 


happy  attachments  would  be  a hundred  times  more  frequent  than 
they  are,  if  the  affection  which  the  two  sexes  sought  from  one 
another  were  that  genuine  friendship  which  only  exists  between 
equals  in  privileges  as  in  faculties.  But  with  regard  to  what  is 
common!}"  called  affection  in  married  life,  — the  habitual  and 
almost  mechanical  feeling  of  kindliness  and  pleasure  in  each  oth- 
er’s society,  which  generally  grows  up  between  persons  who  con- 
stantly live  together,  unless  there  is  actual  dislike,  — there  is  noth- 
ing in  this  to  contradict  or  qualify  the  mischievous  influence  of 
the  unequal  relation.  Such  feelings  often  exist  between  a sal- 
tan and  his  favorites,  between  a master  and  his  servants  ; they 
are  merely  examples  of  the  pliability  of  human  nature,  which 
accommodates  itself,  in  some  degree,  even  to  the  worst  circum- 
stances, and  the  commonest  nature  always  the  most  easily. 

With  respect  to  the  influence  personally  exercised  by  women  over 
men,  it,  no  doubt,  renders  them  less  harsh  and  brutal ; in  ruder 
times,  it  was  often  the  only  softening  influence  to  which  they  were 
accessible.  But  the  assertion  that  the  wife’s  influence  renders 
the  man  less  selfish  contains,  as  things  now  are,  fully  as  irfuch 
error  as  truth.  Selfishness  towards  the  wife  herself,  and  towards 
those  in  whom  she  is  interested,  the  children,  though  favored  by 
their  dependence,  the  wife’s  influence  no  doubt  tends  to  counter- 
act. But  the  general  effect  on  him  of  her  character,  so  long  as 
her  interests  are  concentrated  in  the  family,  tends  but  to  substi- 
tute for  individual  selfishness  a family  selfishness,  wearing  an 
amiable  guise,  and  putting  on  the  mask  of  duty.  How  rarely  is 
the  wife’s  influence  on  the  side  of  public  virtue  ! how  rarely  does 
it  do  otherwise  than  discourage  any  effort  of  principle  by  which 
the  private  interests  or  worldly  vanities  of  the  family  can  be  ex- 
pected to  suffer ! Public  spirit,  sense  of  duty  towards  the  public 
good,  is,  of  all  virtues,  as  women  are  now  educated  and  situated, 
the  most  rarely  to  be  found  among  them  ; they  have  seldom  even, 
what  in  men  is  often  a partial  substitute  for  public  spirit,  a sense 
of  personal  honor  connected  with  any  public  duty.  Many  a man, 
whom  no  money  or  personal  flattery  would  have  bought,  has  bar- 
tered his  political  opinions  against  a title  or  invitations  for  his 


•24 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


wife ; and  a still  greater  number  are  made  mere  hunters  after  the 
puerile  vanities  of  society,  because  their  wives  value  them.  As 
for  opinions,  in  Catholic  countries,  the  wife’s  influence  is  another 
name  for  that  of  the  priest ; he  gives  her,  in  the  hopes  and  emo- 
tions connected  with  a future  life,  a consolation  for  the  sufferings 
and  disappointments  which  are  her  ordinary  lot  in  this.  Else- 
where, her  weight  is  thrown  into  the  scale  either  of  the  most 
commonplace,  or  of  the  most  outwardly  prosperous  opinions . 
either  those  by  which  censure  will  be  escapdd,  or  by  which 
worldly  advancement  is  likeliest  to  be  procured.  In  England  the 
wife’s  influence  is  usually  on  the  illiberal  and  anti-popular  side ; 
this  is  generally  the  gaining  side  for  personal  interest  and  vanity  ; 
and  what  to  her  is  the  democracy  or  liberalism  in  which  she  has 
no  part — which  leaves  her  the  Pariah  it  found  her  ? The  man 
himself,  when  he  marries,  usually  declines  into  conservatism ; 
begins  to  sympathize  with  the  holders  of  power  more  than  with 
the  victims,  and  thinks  it  his  part  to  be  on  the  side  of  authority. 
As  to  mental  progress,  except  those  vulgarer  attainments  by  which 
vanity  or  ambition  are  promoted,  there  is  generally  an  end  to  it 
in  a man  who  marries  a woman  mentally  his  inferior ; unless,  in- 
deed, he  is  unhappy  in  marriage,  or  becomes  indifferent.  From  a 
man  of  twenty-five  or  thirty,  after  he  is  married,  an  experienced 
observer  seldom  expects  any  further  progress  in  mind  or  feelings. 
It  is  rare  that  the  progress  already  made  is  maintained.  Any 
spark  of  the  mens  divinior , which  might  otherwise  have  spread 
and  become  a flame,  seldom  survives  for  any  length  of  time  unex- 
tinguished. For  a mind  which  learns  to  be  satisfied  with  what  it 
already  is,  which  does  not  incessantly  look  forward  to  a degree 
of  improvement  not  yet  reached,  becomes  relaxed,  self-indulgent, 
and  loses  the  spring  and  tension  which  maintain  it  even  at  the 
point  already  attained.  And  there  is  no  fact  in  human  nature  to 
which  experience  bears  more  invariable  testimony  than  to  this; 
that  all  social  or  sympathetic  influences  which  do  not  raise  up 
pull  down  ; if  they  do  not  tend  to  stimulate  and  exalt  the  mind, 
they  tend  to  vulgarize  it. 

For  the  interest,  therefore,  not  only  of  women,  but  of  men,  and 
of  human  improvement,  in  the  widest  sense,  the  Emancipation  of 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


25 


women,  which  the  modern  world  often  boasts  of  having  effected, 
and  for  which  credit  is  sometimes  given  to  civilization,  and  some- 
times to  Christianity,  cannot  stop  where  it  is.  If  it  were  either 
necessary  or  just  that  one  portion  of  mankind  should  remain  men- 
tally and  spiritually  only  half  developed,  the  development  of  the 
other  portion  ought  to  have  been  made,  as  far  as  possible,  inde- 
pendent of  their  influence.  Instead  of  this,  they  have  become  the 
most  intimate,  and,  it  may  now  be  said,  the  only  intimate  associates 
of  those  to  whom  yet  they  are  sedulously  kept  inferior ; and 
have  been  raised  just  high  enough  to  drag  the  others  down  to 
themselves. 

We  have  left  behind  a host  of  vulgar  objections,  either  as  not 
worthy  of  an  answer,  or  as  answered  by  the  general  course  of  our 
remarks.  A few  words,  however,  must  be  said  on  one  plea, 
which,  in  England,  is  made  much  use  of,  for  giving  an  unselfish 
air  to  the  upholding  of  selfish  privileges,  and  which,  with  unob- 
serving, unreflecting  people,  passes  for  much  more  than  it  is  worth. 
Women,  it  is  said,  do  not  desire,  do  not  seek,  what  is  called  their 
emancipation.  On  the  contrary,  they  generally  disown  such 
claims  when  made  in  their  behalf,  and  fall  with  acharnement  upon 
any  one  of  themselves  who  identifies  herself  with  their  common 
cause. 

Supposing  the  fact  to  be  true  in  the  fullest  extent  ever  asserted, 
if  it  proves  that  European  women  ought  to  remain  as  they  are,  it 
proves  exactly  the  same  with  respect  to  Asiatic  women  ; for  they, 
too,  instead  of  murmuring  at  their  seclusion,  and  at  the  restraint 
imposed  upon  them,  pride  themselves  on  it,  and  are  astonished  at 
the  effrontery  of  women  who  receive  visits  from  male  acquaint- 
ances, and  are  seen  in  the  streets  unveiled.  Habits  of  submission 
make  men,  as  well  as  women,  servile-minded.  The  vast  popula- 
tion of  Asia  do  not  desire  or  value  — probably  would  not  accept 
— political  liberty,  nor  the  savages  of  the  forest  civilization  ; 
which  does  not  prove  that  either  of  those  things  is  undesirable  for 
them,  or  that  they  will  not,  at  some  future  time,  enjoy  it.  Cus- 
tom hardens  human  beings  to  any  kind  of  degradation,  by  deaden- 
ing the  part  of  their  nature  which  would  resist  it.  And  the  case 


26 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


of  women  is,  in  this  respect,  even,  a peculiar  one,  for  no  other  in- 
ferior caste  that  we  have  heard  of  have  been  taught  to  regard 
their  degradation  as  their  honor.  The  argument,  however,  implies 
a secret  consciousness  that  the  alleged  preference  of  women  for 
their  dependent  state  is  merely  apparent,  and  arises  from  their 
being  allowed  no  choice ; for,  if  the  preference  be  natural,  there 
can  be  no  necessity  for  enforcing  it  by  law.  To  make  laws  com- 
pelling people  to  follow  their  inclination,  has  not  hitherto  been 
thought  necessary  by  any  legislator.  The  plea  that  women  do  not 
desire  any  change  is  the  same  that  has  been  urged,  times  out  of 
mind,  against  the  proposal  of  abolishing  any  social  evil,  — “ there 
is  no  complaint ; ” which  is  generally  not  true,  and,  when  true,  only 
so  because  there  is  not  that  hope  of  success,  without  which  com- 
plaint seldom  makes  itself  audible  to  unwilling  ears.  How  does 
the  objector  know  that  women  do  not  desire  equality  and  freedom  ? 
He  never  knew  a woman  who  did  not,  or  would  not,  desire  it  for 
herself  individually.  It  would  be  very  simple  to  suppose  that,  if 
they  do  desire  it,  they  will  say  so.  Their  position  is  like  that  of 
the  tenants  or  laborers  who  vote  against  their  own  political 
interests  to  please  their  landlords  or  employers ; with  the  unique 
addition  that  submission  is  inculcated  on  them  from  childhood,  as 
the  peculiar  attraction  and  grace  of  their  character.  They  are 
taught  to  think  that,  to  repel  actively  even  an  admitted  injustice, 
done  to  themselves,  is  somewhat  unfeminine,  and  had  better  be 
left  to  some  male  friend  or  protector.  To  be  accused  of  rebelling 
against  anything  which  admits  of  being  called  an  ordinance  of 
society,  they  are  taught  to  regard  as  an  imputation  of  a serious 
offence,  to  say  the  least,  against  the  proprieties  of  their  sex.  It 
requires  unusual  moral  courage,  as  well  as  disinterestedness,  in  a 
woman,  to  express  opinions  favorable  to  women’s  enfranchisement, 
until,  at  least,  there  is  some  prospect  of  obtaining  it.  The  com* 
fort  of  her  individual  life,  and  her  social  consideration,  usually 
depend  on  the  good  will  of  those  who  hold  the  undue  power  ; and 
to  possessors  of  power  any  complaint,  however  bitter,  of  the  mis- 
use of  it,  is  a less  flagrant  act  of  insubordination  than  to  protest 
against  the  power  itself.  The  professions  of  women  in  this  matter 
remind  us>  of  the  state  offenders  of  old,  who,  on  the  point  of  exe- 


ENFRANCHISEMENT  OF  WOMEN. 


27 


cution,  used  tc  protest  their  love  and  devotion  to  the  sovereign  by 
whose  unjust  mandate  they  suffered.  Griselda  herself  might  be 
matched  from  the  speeches  put  by  Shakspeare  into  the  mouths  of 
male  victims  of  kingly  caprice  and  tyranny ; the  Duke  of  Buck- 
ingham, for  example,  in  “ Henry  the  Eighth,”  and  even  Wolsey. 
The  literary  class  of  women,  especially  in  England,  are  ostenta- 
tious in  disclaiming  the  desire  for  equality  of  citizenship,  and  pro- 
claiming their  complete  satisfaction  with  the  place  which  society 
assigns  to  them ; exercising  in  this,  as  in  many  other  respects,  a 
most  noxious  influence  over  the  feelings  and  opinions  of  men,  who 
unsuspectingly  accept  the  servilities  of  toadyism  as  concessions  to 
the  force  of  truth,  not  considering  that  it  is  the  personal  interest 
of  these  women  to  profess  whatever  opinions  they  expect  will  be 
agreeable  to  men.  It  is  not  among  men  of  talent,  sprung  from  the 
people,  and  patronized  and  flattered  by  the  aristocracy,  that  we 
look  for  the  leaders  of  a democratic  movement.  Successful  lite- 
rary women  are  just  as  unlikely  to  prefer  the  cause  of  women  to 
their  own  social  consideration.  They  depend  on  men’s  opinion 
for  their  literary  as  well  as  for  their  feminine  successes ; and  such 
is  their  bad  opinion  of  men,  that  they  believe  that  there  is  not 
more  than  one  in  ten  thousand  who  does  not  dislike  and  fear 
strength,  sincerity,  or  high  spirit,  in  a woman.  They  are,  there- 
fore, anxious  to  earn  pardon  and  toleration,  for  whatever  of  these 
qualities  their  writings  may  exhibit  on  other  subjects,  by  a studied 
display  of  submission  on  this : that  they  may  give  no  occasion 
for  vulgar  men  to  say  — what  nothing  will  prevent  vulgar  men 
from  saying  that  learning  makes  women  unfeminine,  and  that 
literary  ladies  are  likely  to  be  bad  wives. 


■v\ro]vr-A.3sr 


OF  MISSOURI. 


Mrs.  FRANCIS  MINOR,  President. 

Mrs.  BEVERLY  ALLEN,  Vice-President. 

Mrs.  WM.  T.  HAZARD,  Corresponding  Secretary. 
Mrs.  GEO.  D.  HALL,  Recording  Secretary. 

Mrs.  NATHAN  STEVENS,  Treasurer. 

St.  Louis,  Missouri. 


To  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  of  Missouri : 

Gentlemen  : 

The  undersigned  men  and  women  of  Missouri,  believing  that 
all  citizens  who  are  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  Government  and 
subject  to  its  laws,  should  have  a voice  in  the  making  of  those 
laws,  and  the  selection  of  their  rulers  ; that,  as  the  possession  of  the 
ballot  ennobles  and  elevates  the  character  of  man,  so,  in  like 
manner,  it  would  ennoble  and  elevate  that  of  woman,  by  giving  her 
a direct  and  personal  interest  in  the  affairs  of  Government ; and, 
further,  believing  that  the  spirit  of  the  age,  as  well  as  every  consid- 
eration of  justice  and  equity,  require  that  tlie  ballot  should  be 
extended  to  woman,  do  unite  in  praying  that  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  may  be  proposed,  striking  out  the  word  “ male,”  and 
extending  to  women  the  right  of  suffrage. 

And,  as  in  duty  bound,  your  petitioners  will  ever  pray. 


Copies  of  Petition,  and  Information  furnished  upon  addressing’ 
either  of  above  named  officers. 


Formation  of  Auxiliary  Associations  in  every  county  requested. 
Petitions  when  completely  signed  to  be  returned  to  the  head  office. 


Grand  Opening  of  Spring  and  Summer  Fashions 

AT 

MME.  DEMOREST’S 

EMPORIUM  OF  FASHIONS,  473  Broadway,  New  York. 

Elegantly  Trimmed  Patterns  of  all  the  Latest  and  most  Reliable  Styles  of 
Paris  Fashions  for  Ladies’  and  Children’s  Dress. 

Plain  or  trimmed  for  ladies'  and  children’s  dress,  either  single  or  by 
the  set ; most  of  the  ladies’  patterns,  30  cents  each  ; children’s  15  cents  ; 
trimmed,  double  the  above  prices. 

Ladies  and  dressmakers  at  a distance  may  rely  on  each  pattern  being 
cut  with  accuracy  and  an  exact  counterpart  of  the  shapes  direct  from 
the  acknowledged  and  best  sources  of  fashionable  elegance. 

Patterns  sent  postage  free  on  receipt  of  the  amount. 

The  plain  patterns  are  always  included  and  sent  with  the  trimmed 
patterns  without  extra  charge. 

Dressmaking*  in  all  its  branches,  waists  and  jackets  cut  and 
basted,  waist  patterns  cut  to  fit  the  form  with  accuracy  and  elegance  at 
25  cents. 

Semi-Annual  Bulletins  of  Fashions,  elegantly  colored, 
$2  ; with  ten  full-sized  Patterns,  50  cents  extra.  Postage  free. 

Combination  Suspender  and  Shoulder  Brace. — Ex- 
pands the  chest  and  lungs,  and  encourages  a graceful  position  of  the 
body.  Ladies’,  $1,  $9  per  dozen  ; children’s  75  cents,  $6  per  dozen 
- French  Corsets  on  hand,  or  made  to  measure.  The  most  per- 
fect shapes  made  in  the  very  best  manner,  and  of  very  superior  mate- 
rials. Corded,  $5,  $51  per  dozen;  Fine  Coutille,  $7,  $66  per  dozen  ; 
Feathered,  each,  $1  extra. 

Demorest’s  Monthly  Magazine,  and  Mane.  Demor- 
est’s  Mirror  of  Fashions,  combining  Original  Stories,  Music, 
Poetry,  the  Fashions,  and  other  useful  and  entertaining  Literature. 
Single  copies,  30  cents  ; yearly,  $3,  with  a valuable  premium. 


NEW  YORK 

MEDICAL  COLLEGE  FOR  WOMEN. 

Office,  361  West  34th  street,  N.  Y.  Feb . 11, 1868. 

Mrs.  C.  S.  Lozier,  M.D.,  Dean  op  the  “ N.  Y.  Medical  College  and 
Hospital  for  Women  and  Children,”  desires  in  this  way  to  ask  assistance 
from  any  of  our  citizens,  men  or  women,  to  purchase  a desirable  build- 
ing and  grounds  in  the  upper  part  of  this  city,  offered  to  the  Board  of 
Trustees  for  $31,000.  They  have  about  $15,000  of  the  amount.  Any 
one  able  to  help  them  to  secure  this  property  either  by  donation,  or  loan 
without  interest,  will  forward  a noble  cause.  Apply  or  write  to  Mrs. 
C.  F.  Wells,  Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  No.  389  Broadway, 
firm  of  Fowler  & Wells. 


THE  ORfJAV 


rTTTT7  -Kr  * mm-m  THE  ORGAN  OP 

THE  NATIONAL  PARTY  of  NEW  AM’F’RTi"' a V . 

dividual  Rights  and  ReTpot^MUties  ’ baSed  oa  1 

Devoted  to  Principle  not  Policy,  Justice  not  Favors. 

WOMFMheTkRighD?  ?nd  Noth'ng  More. 
WOMEN-Their  Rights  and  Nothing  Less. 

1 . WILL  DISCUSS 

stlsd°n;  Personal  Purity;  J ^oeve?oTan\sBweanearSGodS:  ScieDCe  “0t  S"^« 

Fact.  no 

Knlt^ 

introduce  to  every  family  tS’  whlch  even  Religious  Newspaper: 

SAr°v ’ AmfriS nlTo^lr^ed^by  Europi*CQOLDNnkeCOm(“«rCial  and  Financia 
SALE;  Greenbacks  FOR  MONEY  • An  Am^^Pa  1 0U*  £otton  and  Corn,  FOR 

ducts  and  Labor  Free  ; Foreign  ^ f American  Pro- 

Immigrants ; Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans  for  AMERrc W°i?U  °TS  to  Artisana  and 
or  American  Goods  in  American  RnttPP?  ^ Steamships  and  Shinnincr 

World;  Wall  Street  emancipated*  fmm^Banli  of^Kn^lirid  theAFi  ““<=•“>  Centre  Ttlfe 
•can  Bills  ; The  Credit  Fonder and  Credit MoKA?  Amori«an  Cash  for  Amer- 
Resuscitate  the  South  and  our  Minina-  Interests  and  t n*pl  ^ e!n,f ?r  5aP^ai  Mobilized  to 
to  Ocean,  from  Omaha  to  San  Fran^  Cou,lt'T  from  Ocean 

Cold  and  Silver  Bullion  to  Sell  to  Foreigners  at'tKe1 p*?r’  m°m  Cotton,  more 
Naturalized  Citizens  Demand  a Penny  Ocean  Posta^e^?^?™”^8,  .J6"  Milliona  of 
°aLL^\  Congress  vote  One  Hundred 


\ of  Labor.  If  Congress  vote  O ne  if ii n dr e d° an *d  n t v ?treijgt**en  the  Brotherhoo 

T and  Freedman’s  Bureau  for  the  Blacks C S MlllT*  £r,a  8tandIa« 

*•  to  keep  bright  the  Chain  of  Frien^hin’iS^l  S5L' ¥!?.£»•  “ «<>?  %«» 


Army  f 


I Whites  to  keep  bright  theClminof  Friendship' between  thenvamTthd^  Fatherland? 

1 ELIZABETH  CADY  STANTON  i 

PARKER  PILLSBURY,  ’ [ Editors 

_ . SUSAN  B.  ANTHONY,  Prophietob 

lo  whom  address  all  business  Letters,  37  PARK  ROW  New  Vn-i-  n-,  ’ 

I OneXyl 6“title  the 
bend  in  your  Subscription— THE  REVOLUTION  PnbHaL-A 
I the  Great  Organ  of  the  Age.  “ ’ ubllshed  onc®  a week, 

TRACTS  for  Sale  at  the  Office  of  “THE  REVOLUTION  ” 

Enfrauchisernent  of  Women.  By  Mrs.  John  Stuart  Mill 
Suffrage  for  Women.  By  John  Stuart  Mill,  M.P. 

Freedom  for  Women.  By  Wendell  Philips! 

Public  Function  of  Women.  By  Theodiro  Parker 
Woman  and  her  Wishes.  By  Col.  T.  W.  Higginson 
Responsibilities  of  Women.  By  Mrs.  C.  I.  If.  Nichols 
Woman  s Duty  to  Vote.  By  Henry  Ward  Beecher 
Shi  MW1  ,?fnffr5S-  *. By  Elizabeth  Cady  Stanton. 

The  Mortality  of  Nations.  By  Parker  Pillsburv. 
fihmfrn  wtS  ^ Women  By  George  William  Curtis. 

Th  J ir 1 Wom£n  ^ °te  ? Affirmative  Testimonials  of  Sundry  Persons 
The  Kansas  Campaign.  By  George  Francis  Train  ^ 


J 


